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Press  Bulletin  Series 

STATE  OF  ILLINOIS 


DEPARTMENT  OF  REGISTRATION  AND  EDUCATION 

A.  M.  SHELTON.  Director 

DIVISION  OF  THE 


Issued  Twice  Quarterly 

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UlVlMUfM  ur    1Mb 

STATE  GEOLOGICAL  SURVEY**^.  .  ov/fc.  .  ^% 

M.  M.  LEIGHTON.  Chief.    Urbana  ^  of!     "^^ 


No"  ILLINOIS    PETROLEUM  September  3,  1927 


RECENT   DEVELOPMENT   IN   THE  VICINITY  OF ■ 
JACKSONVILLE 

By   Alfred    H.   Bell 

Introduction 

Gas  was  discovered  about  6  miles  east  of  Jacksonville  as  early  as  1890, 
and  oil  in  1910.  Since  that  time  numerous  attempts  have  been  made  to 
develop  a  commercial  oil  held,  but  until  this  year  the  oil  production  has 
been  of  little  importance  except  for  local  use.  During  the  fall  of  1926  the 
attention  of  oil  operators  was  attracted  to  the  Jacksonville  area  by  the  com- 
pletion of  a  well  estimated  at  10  barrels  by  P.  C.  Irwin  and  others  on  the 
Conklin  farm  in  sec.  IS.  T.  15  N..  R.  !)  W.  Attempts  to  extend  this  pro- 
duction have  so  far  not  been  successful  although  a  little  oil  has  been  found 
in  Mime  of  the  adjacent  wells.  In  the  meantime  timberlake  and  Higgins 
of  Centralia,  and  Benoist  Brothers  and  others  of  Alt.  Vernon  obtained 
leases  and  began  operations  in  the  vicinity.  As  a  result  of  the  efforts  of 
Timberlake  and  Higgins.  commercial  quantities  of  oil,  as  well  as  gas,  have 
been  found.  The  new  drilling  has  added  to  previous  knowledge  of  geo- 
logical conditions  in  the  area,  and  a  brief  presentation  of  the  newly  acquired 
data  will  undoubtedly  be  of  assistance  both  in  the  development  of  the  pro- 
duction already  discovered  and  in  the  search  for  new  oil  production  in  the 
surrounding  territory.  The  area  to  which  this  paper  refers  is  part  of  that 
described  in  a  former  Survey  publication1. 

Field  Work 

Because  of  the  close  spacing  of  some  of  the  wells,  a  new  plane  table 
>urvey  of  the  area  was  made  on  a  scale  of  1,000  feet  to  one  inch  which  is 
a  larger  scale  than  that  formerly  used.  Levels  to  the  oil  and  gas  wells  and 
to  as  many  of  the  dry  holes  and  abandoned  wells  as  could  be  located  were 
run  from  Strawn's  Crossing  on  the  Chicago  and  Alton  Railroad.  The  in- 
strument work  was  done  by  Leslie  A.  Holmes. 

1  Collingwood,    I  >.    M.,    Oil    and    sas    development    in    the    vicinity    of    Jacksonville; 
Illinois   Stat.-  Geol.    Survey   Bull.    4J1-:,   1923. 


2  ILLINOIS   PETBOLEUM 

The  surface  material  of  the  area  is  glacial  drift  and  stream  deposits, 
and  the  topography  gives  no  indication  of  the  subsurface  structure.  Accord- 
ingly the  physiographic  features  are  not  described  in  this  paper. 

Stratigraphy 

Beneath  the  Pleistocene  deposits  of  unconsolidated  materials,  which 
vary  in  thickness  from  30  to  100  feet,  lie  rocks  of  Pennsylvanian  age,  largely 
shale  with  some  interbedded  limestone,  sandstone,  and  coal.  As  the  Pennsyl- 
vanian strata  are  bounded  both  above  and  below  by  irregular  erosional  sur 
faces,  their  thickness  is  variable;  it  is  roughly  200  feet.  In  the  area  mapped 
only  two  of  the  wells  of  which  records  are  available  were  deep  enough  to 
pass  through  Mississippian  strata,  and  consequently  data  concerning  the 
older  rocks  are  very  limited.  One  of  the  wells,  Rhodes  and  Moorehead's 
Geary  No.  2,  went  14  0  feet  into  the  Kimmswick-Plattin  or  "Trenton"  lime- 
stone. A  study  of  cuttings  from  this  well  and  correlation  with  the  logs  of 
other  deep  wells  in  the  general  region  indicate  the  following  probable  thick- 
nesses for  the   formations  drilled  : 

Thickness   of   Formations   Penetrated    in    Rhodes  and  Moorehead's 
Cleary  No.  2. 

Thickness 

Feet  Kind   of   rock 

Mississippian    640  Chiefly    limestone    and    shale 

Devonian    150  Chiefly  limestone 

Ordovician 

Maquoketa   200  Shale 

Kimmswick-Plattin    140  Limestone 

Structure 

The  stratified  rocks  of  the  area  are  essentially  fiat-lying  and  have  a 
gentle  regional  dip  to  the  east.  Owing  to  the  inadequate  character  of  the 
majority  of  the  well  logs  available,  it  was  not  found  practicable  to  use  a 
Pennsylvanian  stratum  as  the  key  horizon  for  a  structure  contour  map. 
However,  the  majority  of  the  older  logs  give  the  depth  to  the  top  of  "rock" 
which  presumably  represents  the  top  of  the  Mississippian  limestone  in  most 
places,  and  accordingly  this  was  chosen  as  the  key  horizon  in  figure  1.  It 
has  the  disadvantage  of  being  a  surface  of  unconformity,  and  therefore  the 
map  cannot  be  considered  a  structure  map  in  the  ordinary  sense.  The  con- 
tours represent  the  topography  of  the  pre-Pennsylvanian  erosional  surface, 
modified  perhaps  by  later  deformational  movements.     It  is  possible,  as  has 


.LUNO.S  STATE  GEOLOGICAL  SURVEY 

fill !  00005  1395 


RECENT   DEVELOPMENT    l\    THE    VICINITY    OF   JACKSONVILLE  3 

been  pointed  out2,  that  the  form  of  this  erosional  surface  may  to  some  extent 
have  been  controlled  by  the  folding  of  the  Mississippian  rock  strata  beneath. 
Insofar  as  the  upper  surface  of  the  porous  oil-  and  gas-bearing  zone  in  the 
Mississippian  conforms   with  the  pre-Pennsylvanian  erosional   surface,   the 

oil  and  gas  pools  in  this  horizon  should  have  a  definite  relation  to  the  features 
shown  by  the  contours.  Collingwood's  conclusion"  that  the  oil  anil  gas  of 
this  area  "have  been  found  mostly  in  certain  lenses  or  horizons  in  the  Salem, 
and  are  associated  with  the  highest  parts  of  its  old  eroded  surface"  must 
he  somewhat  modified  in  the  light  of  the  new  data  here  presented. 

The  more  obvious  features  of  the  contoured  pre-Pennsylvanian  surface 
in  T.  1.")  X..  R.  9  \Y.  as  shown  in  figure  1  are  enumerated  below:  Mississip- 
pian "highs"  occur  (  1  )  along  the  S.  line  of  the  SE.  r4  sec.  S,  extending 
eastward  into  sees.  9  and  Ki  and  S.  into  sec.  17.  (2)  in  the  E.  ^4  of  sec. 
5  and  adjacent  part  of  sec.  1,  ( .'! )  NW.  %  sec.  18,  and  (4)  E.  part  of  see.  4 
and  the  whole  of  sec.  3.  A  synclinal  belt  trending  east-west  lies  about  in  the 
center  of  sec>.  8,  9,  and  10.  The  oil  production  in  both  sees.  8  and  IS  is  situ- 
ated not  on  the  highest  parts  of  the  erosional  surfaces,  but  on  the  saddles 
between  the  highs.  The  Harris-Conklin  gas  field  in  sees.  3  and  2  is  associ- 
ated with  a  Mississipian  high.  As  would  be  expected,  gas  occurs  higher  on 
the  slopes  than  oil.  but  there  are  exceptions,  and  the  probable  explanation  is 
that  the  upper  surface  of  the  porous  reservoir  rock  does  not  entirely  conform 
with  the  erosional  surface  mapped.  Some  of  the  gas  also  comes  from  pro- 
ducing horizons  other  than  the  Salem  limestone  and  would  not  be  expected 
to  be  related  as  is  this  formation  to  the  features  of  the  pre-Pennsylvanian 
erosional  surface. 

Table  1  contains  in  outline  form  the  material  treated  in  the  pages  follow- 
ing and  when  used  with  the  map  (fig.  1 ),  gives  a  summary  of  the  information 
gained  from  the  wells  drilled  in  the  last  eight  months. 

Producing  Horizons 

Pennsylvanian:  Gas  from  sandstone  beds  in  the  Pennsylvanian  has  been 
reported  in  a  number  of  the  wells,  but  at  present  the  only  commercial  well 
producing  from  the  Pennsylvanian  seems  to  be  Timberlake  and  Higgins' 
Cleary  Xo.  'i  (map  Xo.  Ki).  This  well  was  drilled  into  the  Salem  limestone, 
but  gas  having  a  pressure  of  45  pounds  was  found  in  a  sand  from  239  to  247 
feet,  or  about  60  feet  above  the  top  of  the  Salem,  which  was  found  at  299 
feet. 

Salem:  Most  of  the  gas  and  all  of  the  oil  so  far  produced  in  the  area 
occurs  in  a  Mississippian  limestone  which  has  been  correlated  as  the  Salem 


1  Collingwood,    D.    M.,    Oil    and    gas    development    in    tin-    vicinity    of    Jacksonville: 
Illinois  State   Geol.   Survey    Bull.    MP.,   i>.    13,   1 023. 

■  Id'  111.,     p.     1  4. 


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i:i  i  I   ST    DEVI  LOPMENT    IN    THE   VICINITY    OF   JACKSONVILLE  7 

(Spergen)4.  There  -'(.thin  to  be  little  doubt  thai  it  belongs  in  the  Meramec 
group  and  thai  it  is  either  St.  Louis  or  Salem.  The  oil-bearing  strata  vary 
considerably  in  lithologic  character  within  relatively  short  distances.     In  the 

two  recently  drilled  wells.  Malum  Nos.  *  and  9  (map  Nos.  ".Ji>  and  21  ),  the 
oil  rock  is  a  relatively  pure  limestone  and  seems  to  he  entirely  lacking  in 
silicious  material.  On  the  other  hand,  the  same  horizon  to  the  southwest  in 
the  Five  Star  1'etroleum  Company's  Coons  No.  1  (map  No.  28),  to  the 
northwest  in  the  Timberlake  and  Higgins'  Mahon  No.  ?  (map  No.  ."> ) .  and 
to  the  north  in  the  Five  Star  Petroleum  Company's  Malum  No.  -1  (map 
No.  23  )  is  represented  by  a  sandy  limestone5.  The  same  condition  was 
found  in  a  study  of  the  samples  from  Timberlake  and  Higgins'  Mahon  No.  7. 
The  typical  oil-hearing  rock  from  Mahon  No.  !>  (map  No.  21  )  is  a  light 
hi  own  limestone,  rather  soft,  having  a  finely  mottled  texture.  On  examina- 
tion with  the  hand  lens  it  is  seen  to  consist  of  numerous  small  fragments  re- 
sembling oolites  hut  more  irregular  in  shape.  The  interstitial  space  is  partly 
filled  with  calcium  carbonate,  and  the  remaining  open  space  appears  ample 
to  contain   oil    in   commercially   extractahle   quantities. 

The  impervious  rock  which  confines  the  oil  to  certain  zones  in  the 
Salem  limestone  appears  to  he  dense  non-porous  parts  of  the  Salem  itself. 
In  Mahon  well  No.  !)  (map  No.  21  )  a  bed  of  sandstone  2  feet  thick,  contain- 
ing no  gas.  oil.  or  water,  lies  directly  on  top  of  the  Salem  limestone.  A 
thickness  of  is  feet  of  limestone  was  drilled  through  before  the  first  show  of 
oil  was  encountered.  Evidently  at  least  part  of  this  upper  18  feet  of  the 
Salem  is  impervious  in  this  location.  The  drill  cuttings  from  this  "cap 
nek"  are  very  line  grained  in  texture  and  light  gray  or  almost  white  in  color. 

As  illustrated  in  the  Mahon  wells  Nos.  8  and  !>  (map  Nos.  20  and  27), 
the  succession  of  nil-hearing  and  barren  strata  in  the  Salem  varies  within 
comparatively  short  distances.  The  porosity  of  a  given  bed  may  vary  from 
place  to  place,  and  the  oil-bearing  zones  may  to  some  extent  he  across  the 
bedding  planes. 

Keokuk-BurUngton:  Gas  from  a  deeper  producing  horizon  was  dis- 
covered  in  Timberlake  and  Higgins'  Willerton  No.  1  (map  No.  55).  A 
small  quantity  of  gas  was  found  in  the  Salem  in  this  well,  and  drilling  was 
continued.  After  passing  through  90  feet  of  Salem  limestone  and  110  feet 
of  Warsaw  formation,  chiefly  sandy  shale,  the  top  of  the  Keokuk-Burlington 
was  reached  at  a  depth  of  I'M  feet.  The  5  3/16-inch  casing  was  set  at  this 
depth,  and  drilling  was  continued  in  hard  limestone  to  a  depth  of  435  feet 
at   which   point   gas   with   a  pressure  of    15  pounds   and   a  slight   "rainbow" 


1  Collingwood  I  >.  M.,  oil  and  gas  development  in  the  vicinity  of  Jacksonville: 
Illinois  State  Geol.  Survey  null.    14K,  pp.   12  and  13,  1923. 

s  Idem,  pp.  9  t"  1-  for  logs  based  on  sample  studies  from  the  two  wells  of  the 
live    star    Petroleum    Company. 


»  ILLINOIS    PKTROLKUM 

of  oil  were  found.     Production  was  estimated  at  2, 000, ()()()  cubic  feet  per  day. 
Figure  2  is  designed  to  show  the  oil-bearing  horizons  in  relation  to  the 
barren  strata,  and  the  two  logs  detailed  below  example  the  character  of  the 
formations  penetrated. 

Driller's  log  from    Timberlake  and  Biggins'   well  No.   10   (map  No.  32)   on    Travis 

farm  in  NW.  %  SE.  *4  See.  8,  T.  to  N..  R.  9  W. 

Elevation— 627  Feet 

Thickness  Depth 

No.                                                                                                             Feet  Feet 
Pleistocene  system 

1.  Clay,  yellow    18  18 

2.  Gravel,  clay,   sand 22  40 

Unconformity 
Pennsylvanian  system 

3.  Shale,  blue    24  64 

4.  Lime    1  65 

5.  Shale     3  68 

6.  Gravel  and  water    ( coal ) 3  71 

7.  Slate,  dark    9  80 

8.  Slate,   white    15  95 

9.  Lime    1  96 

10.  Slate,   white    24  120 

11.  Shale,  gray   54  174 

12.  Sandstone    5  179 

13.  Shale,  dark   23  202 

14.  Lime  (?)    1  203 

15.  Slate,    black    3  206 

16.  Coal     6  212 

17.  Fire  clay    12  224 

18.  Lime    5  229 

19.  Slate,   white    16  245 

20.  Sand;   gas  and  show  of  oil 6  251 

21.  Sand    ' 6  257 

22.  Coal     3  260 

23.  Fire  clay    6  266 

24.  Slate,   dark    17  283 

Unconformity 
Mississippian  system 

25.  Lime,   white    30  313 

26.  Lime;    first  oil  show  in   limestone 13  326 

27.  Lime  and  green  shale 4  330 

Unconformity 

Mississippian  system 

19.  Lime,   hard    18  275 

20.  Lime,   brown ;    oil   show 4  279 

21.  Lime,    light  brown 4  283 

22.  Lime,  brown   4  289 

23.  Lime,   white    2  291 


KE(  INT   DEVELOPMENT    IN    THE   VICINITY    OF   JACKSONVILLE  9 

Driller's  log  from  Timberlake  and  Higgins'  well  No.  9  (map  No.  i"i )  on  Malum  farm 
in  SW.  >,   NW.  \  sec.  8,  T.  15  X..  R.  9  W. 

Elevation— 595   Feet 

Thickness  Depth 

No.  Feet  Feet 

Pleistocene  system 

1.  Mud,    brown    15  15 

2.  Hardpan,   gravel,   water 21  36 

3.  Clay,  blue ;   and  gravel 29  65 

4.  Gravel     12  77 

Unconformity 

Pennsylvanian  system 

5-     Shale     58  135 

6.  Lime,  dark   9  144 

7.  Shale,  dark   21  165 

S-     Lime    1  166 

9.     Shale,   black    3  159 

10.  Coal     5  174 

11.  Lime,  gray    7  181 

12.  Lime,  white    6  187 

13.  Shale,  gray   41  228 

1 4.  Coal     6  234 

15.  Fire  clay    4  238 

16.  Slate,   gray    7  245 

17.  Slate,   dark    10  255 

18.  Sand,   hard    2  257 

Recent  Development 

An  account  of  the  history  of  development  up  to  L922  has  already  been 
published6.  Within  the  last  eight  months  Li  wells  have  been  drilled  in  sees. 
H  and  is.  1".  1  .">  X.,  R.  !>  W.  of  which  2  are  gas  producers,  5  oil  producers, 
and  ii  dry  holes.  Among  the  best  of  the  oil  wells  are  the  last  two  drilled; 
namely,  Timbcrlake  and  Higgins*  Marion  Nos.  S  and  '••  (map  Nos.  26  and 
Zt).  The  character  of  the  oibbearing  rock  is  such  that  shooting  with 
nitroglycerin  is  particularly  successful.  The  showing  of  oil  in  Mahon  No. 
8  before  the  shot  was  so  small  that  most  operators  would  not  have  considered 


•  Collingwood,    1  >.    M.,    oil    and    gas   development    in    the    vicinity    of    Jacksonville: 
Illinois    stale   Geol.    Survey    Bull,    in:,    1923. 


10 


ILLINOIS   PETROLEUM 


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RECENT   DEVELOPMENT    IN    THE   \HIMTY    OF   JACKSONVILLE  11 

shooting.  However,  Mr.  Timberlake  decided  to  shoot  with  80  quarts  of 
nitroglycerin,  and  the  performance  of  the  well  afterwards  shows  this  ex- 
penditure to  have  been  justified.  Within  3  hours  after  the  shot  the  oil 
was  standing  .~>  feet  above  the  bottom.  By  the  time  the  well  was  ready 
to  be  pumped  there  was  L50  feet  of  oil  in  the  well.  In  a  12-hour  pumping 
tesl  it  produced  11  barrels  of  oil  of  '■'>  I  A.  I'.  1.  gravity  (American  Petroleum 
Institute).  Mahon  No.  9  had  a  somewhat  better  showing  of  oil  before  the 
shot  than  had  Xo.  8.  and  it  also  was  shot  with  so  quarts.  On  account  of 
trouble  with  tubing  and  valves  the  well  was  not  pumped  continuously  for  12 
hours,  hut  in  a  total  of  8  hours  pumping  on  two  successive  days  it  made  19 
barrels  of  oil. 

The  most  recent  well  drilled  in  the  area,  Timberlake  and  Higgins' 
Travis  Xo  10  (map  Xo.  32)  was  completed  on  August  17th,  total  depth  330 
feet.  It  had  a  show  of  gas  and  oil  in  a  1'ennsylvanian  sand  from  245  to  251 
feet  and  a  show  of  oil  in  the  Mississipian  from  310  to  328  feet  in  lime- 
stone. At  the  time  of  writing  it  has  not  yet  been  shot,  hut  it  will  probably 
make  a  commercial  well  for  the  amount  of  oil  showing  in  the  Mississipian 
is  about  the  same  as  in   Mahon  Xo.  !). 

The  group  of  six  gas  wells  on  the  Harris  and  Conklin  farms  in  sees. 
2  and  '■>,  T.  15  X.  R.  !>  \Y.  were  drilled  by  P.  (A  Irwin  and  his  associates  in 
102:!.  The  best  well,  Harris  No.  3  (map  No.  '.])  gauged  9.3  million  cubic 
feet  per  24  hours.  All  the  rest  except  Conklin  No.  3  which  was  consider- 
ably lighter  gauged  in  the  neighborhood  of  2, 000, 000  cubic  feet.  The 
owners  of  these  wells  have  recently  completed  the  construction  of  five  miles 
of  6-inch  and  four  miles  of  8-inch  pipe  line  to  the  city  of  Jacksonville. 
About  August  ]  st  natural  gas  was  turned  on  in  Jacksonville  and  is  being 
used  mixed  with  artificial  gas  to  the  extent  of  a  quarter  of  a  million  cubic 
feet  per  day.  At  present  only  two  wells  are  being  used  ;  namely.  Conklin 
Xos.  1  and  2  (ma])  Nos.  1  and  2).  The  pressure  in  the  main  is  55  pounds, 
and  this  i^  reduced  to  seven  pounds  at  the  city  limits. 

Recom  mendations 

It  seems  probable  that  oil  production  will  be  found  to  extend  some 
distance  south,  southeast,  and  east  of  the  present  productive  area  on  the 
Mahon  lease.  It  will  probably  he  found  most  advantageous  to  "feel  out" 
this  acreage  by  moving  outwards,  one  location  at  a  time,  in  these  directions. 

The  occurence  of  gas  at  a  number  of  localities  in  the  surrounding  region 
and  the  association  of  oil  with  gas  in  sees.  8  and  is,  T.  1  .">  N..  R.  9  W.  sug- 
gest the  possibility  of  the  occurrence  of  oil  in  commercial  quantities  in  the 


12  ILLINOIS    PETROLEUM 

same  geologic  horizon  in  other  localities  than  those  in  which  it  is  already 
known.  At  present  the  lack  of  adequate  knowledge  of  structural  conditions 
prevents  the  making  of  any  very  specific  recommendations  as  to  territory 
worthy  of  wildcat  testing.  Much  of  this  lack  of  geological  data  must  he 
attributed  to  the  fact  that  only  meager  records  were  kept  of  the  great 
majority  of  the  earlier  wells  drilled.  Those  who  have  been  operating  more 
recently  in  the  region  are  to  be  congratulated  on  the  way  in  which  they 
have  cooperated  in  the  geological  study  of  the  area  by  keeping  detailed  logs 
and  samples  of  cuttings.  These  data  will  be  an  invaluable  aid  in  future 
development  in  the  area. 


11      (73780 — 1500) 


